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A review by jburkespraker
All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography by Ida M. Tarbell
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Ida Tarbell is the muckraking journalist who took down Standard Oil, and that is the least interesting thing about her.
She is the Progressive Era’s Kara Swisher.
Born in 1857—the same year that oil is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania and the US has one of its many bank panics—Ida Tarbell lives through the Civil War, the Gilded Age, World War I, the roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and publishes her autobiography the year that World War II breaks out. He dies in 1944.
Although she’s seen as a critic of Standard Oil, her work is only possible through access journalism. For two years, she conducts interviews with members of the its executive team. These interviews form the basis of the 19 articles that she publishes in McClure‘s Magazine.
Eventually, she writes a 1000-page history of Standard Oil. In the later part of her book, she mentions that she considered adding a third volume that reflects the breakup of the company, but it was never completed.
She later profiles Henry Ford, who invites her on the peace boat, his attempt to intervene in World War I. She also profiles Judge Gary, the second president of US steel right as US steel is being sued by the US government for violating the Sherman Act.
In the book, she makes it clear that she doesn’t have a problem with American industrialists accumulating ridiculous amounts of wealth as long as the business and labor practices are fair.
She also serves on the women’s committee in Woodrow Wilson’s administration. If you think that would qualify her as a feminist, you would be wrong. She is deeply against suffrage for women and makes that clear throughout the book.
In what might be called the most bizarre anecdote in her book, she interviews Mussolini and describes him as and I quote:
“He might be—was, I believed—a fearful despot, but he had a dimple.”
She thinks Napoleon is great, writes extensively on Lincoln, and publishes a book on tariffs to explain how they work to the public at a time when—much like now—they are having a negative impact on the US economy.
As a genre, memoir is the least trustworthy historical source. Looking back on your own life means you are neither objective nor accurate in your portrayal. So we must take Ida’s reflections with a heaping tablespoon of salt, but her account gives us tremendous insight into the experience of working women in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In short, Ida Tarbell is an incredible writer, lived a fabulous life, and wrote some of the most important journalism of the Progressive Era
She would make a fun project to study. I am thinking of looking for her McClure’s essays.
She is the Progressive Era’s Kara Swisher.
Born in 1857—the same year that oil is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania and the US has one of its many bank panics—Ida Tarbell lives through the Civil War, the Gilded Age, World War I, the roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and publishes her autobiography the year that World War II breaks out. He dies in 1944.
Although she’s seen as a critic of Standard Oil, her work is only possible through access journalism. For two years, she conducts interviews with members of the its executive team. These interviews form the basis of the 19 articles that she publishes in McClure‘s Magazine.
Eventually, she writes a 1000-page history of Standard Oil. In the later part of her book, she mentions that she considered adding a third volume that reflects the breakup of the company, but it was never completed.
She later profiles Henry Ford, who invites her on the peace boat, his attempt to intervene in World War I. She also profiles Judge Gary, the second president of US steel right as US steel is being sued by the US government for violating the Sherman Act.
In the book, she makes it clear that she doesn’t have a problem with American industrialists accumulating ridiculous amounts of wealth as long as the business and labor practices are fair.
She also serves on the women’s committee in Woodrow Wilson’s administration. If you think that would qualify her as a feminist, you would be wrong. She is deeply against suffrage for women and makes that clear throughout the book.
In what might be called the most bizarre anecdote in her book, she interviews Mussolini and describes him as and I quote:
“He might be—was, I believed—a fearful despot, but he had a dimple.”
She thinks Napoleon is great, writes extensively on Lincoln, and publishes a book on tariffs to explain how they work to the public at a time when—much like now—they are having a negative impact on the US economy.
As a genre, memoir is the least trustworthy historical source. Looking back on your own life means you are neither objective nor accurate in your portrayal. So we must take Ida’s reflections with a heaping tablespoon of salt, but her account gives us tremendous insight into the experience of working women in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In short, Ida Tarbell is an incredible writer, lived a fabulous life, and wrote some of the most important journalism of the Progressive Era
She would make a fun project to study. I am thinking of looking for her McClure’s essays.